The Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center 's mission is to provide scientific understanding and the technology needed to support sound management and conservation of our nation's natural resources, with emphasis on western ecosystems. The scientists from FRESC capitalize on their diverse expertise to answer critically important scientific questions shaped by the equally diverse environments of the western United States. FRESC scientists collaborate with each other and with partners to provide rigorous, objective, and timely information and guidance for the management and conservation of biological systems in the West and worldwide. Research activities are concentrated in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada,...

Mitigation of ecological damage caused by rangeland wildfires has historically been an issue restricted to the western United States. It has focused on conservation of ecosystem function through reducing soil erosion and spread of invasive plants. Effectiveness of mitigation treatments has been debated recently. We searched for literature on postfire seeding of rangelands worldwide. Literature databases searched included SCOPUS, Dissertation Abstracts, Forest Science, Tree search, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and science.gov. Search terms within publications included fire or wildfire in combination with seeding, rehabilitation, restoration, revegetation, stabilization, chaining, disking, drilling, invasives,...

Why Rangelands: The Central Valley of California, the surrounding foothills and the interior Coast Range include over 18 million acres of grassland. Most of this land is privately owned and managed for livestock production. Because grasslands are found in some of California’s fastest-growing counties, they are severely threatened by land conversion and development. In addition climate change stresses grasslands by potentially changing water availability and species distributions.Maintaining a ranching landscape can greatly support biodiversity conservation in the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) region. In addition ranches generate multiple ecosystem services—defined as human benefits provided...

Post-fire rehabilitation seeding in the U.S. Intermountain West, primarily conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, is designed to reduce the risk of erosion and weed invasion while increasing desirable plant cover. Seeding effectiveness is typically monitored for three years following treatment, after which a closeout report is prepared. We evaluated 220 third-year closeout reports describing 214 aerial and 113 drill seedings implemented after wildfires from 2001 through 2006. Each treatment was assigned a qualitative success rating of good, fair, poor, or failure based on information in the reports. Seeding success varied by both treatment (aerial or drill) and year. Aerial seedings were rated 13.6% good, 18.3%...